Himachal CM Sukhu announces Rs 1500 monthly to eligible woman of state from April 1 onwards

SHIMLA: After surviving a recent bid to topple his government during the budget session, the chief minister Sukhvinder Singh is now in action mode and is focussing on fulfilling the poll guarantees given by the Congress party during the 2022 assembly election. Sukhu on Monday announced to give Rs 1500 per month to all the eligible women of Himachal Pradesh in the age group of 18-60 years under the Indira Gandhi Pyaari Behna Samman Nidhi Yojana. With this Sukhu said that the Congress government has fulfilled its 5th poll guarantee.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, while addressing media persons in Shimla on Monday, said that with the decision to implement Indira Gandhi Pyaari Behna Samman Nidhi Yojana from financial year 2024-25 across state, a total of five lakh women will benefit from the scheme and the burden of Rs 800 crore every year will fall on the treasury.
During the 2022 assembly election, Congress had given the guarantee to give Rs 1500 per month to all women between 18-60 years of age on coming to power and since the formation of government the opposition BJP was cornering the government on this guarantee. BJP was even making it a big issue in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
The chief minister said that he had to announce this during his reply to the budget, but could not do so due to the noise from the opposition. He said that in Lahaul-Spiti district, all the women have started getting Rs 1500 from February 25 this year and now this pension will be available in other areas of the state also.
Sukhu said that under the Indira Gandhi Pyaari Behna Samman Nidhi Yojana all the women of 18 years or above age will get this benefit from April 1 onwards. He said that in Himachal Pradesh, 2.45 lakh women above 60 years of age were earlier getting a monthly pension of Rs 1150 and now their pension has also been increased to Rs 1500.
While lashing out at BJP for leaving the state's finances in disorder, he said that when the Congress government came to power, it inherited a debt burden of Rs 75,000 crore beside Rs 10,000 crore liabilities to the government employees. He said that in the last 14 months, his government has worked hard to improve the financial position of the state.
Sukhu said that in the very first cabinet meeting, 1.36 lakh government employees were given Old Pension Scheme (OPS) after which several sanctions were imposed on the state government. He said that his government also fulfilled the second poll guarantee of providing self-employment to the youth by launching a Rs 680 crore start up scheme called Rajiv Gandhi Start-up Yojana’ .
He said that Congress had promised to open 4 English medium schools in each assembly constituency of the state and this guarantee is being fulfilled from this academic session and the English as a subject would be taught from class 1 onwards.
He said that to strengthen the rural economy, his government fulfilled the fourth guarantee on milk. He said that his government has increased the price of cow milk from Rs 32 to Rs 45 and the price of buffalo milk from Rs 32 to Rs 55. Similarly, Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country to give MSP for wheat and maize produced through natural farming.